Cast
1697 Words
“Um, Madam-”
Reyna snatches the x-ray pictures from Roberts. She examines them as she walks back into the room.
“So is it that fracture thingy you said it was?” Lucifer asks.
“Yes, it was.” Reyna nods. “Well, it is.”
“The results of the ultrasound will be in a couple of minutes.”
“Yes, make sure to look for the fracture.” Reyna’s eyes scan the x-rays.
She frowns a bit as she notices the wrist.
“You broke your wrist not even a full year ago.” Reyna looks down at Isaac. “On the same arm.”
“Oh, yeah, that was his fault.” Isaac points at Lucifer.
“It was an accident!”
“Explain this ‘accident’ of yours, Lucifer.” Reyna turns to him as she hands Roberts the x-ray pictures.
“I- he was learning how to ride his bike.” Lucifer says slowly as he grabs the golden wedding band on his right index finger and slips it on and off, avoiding Reyna’s gaze.
“And?”
“Dad tripped and I went flying, bike and all.” Isaac finishes.
Roberts couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Reyna, annoyed look on her face, looks at Roberts from the corner of her eye before looking at Lucifer.
“If I had just tied my shoelace, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“Yet it did, you irresponsible piece of-”
A knock on the door frame breaks the tension as everyone turns to face a nurse.
“We’re ready to apply the cast.”
Reyna nods at the nurse before turning to glare at Lucifer.
“This isn’t over.” She grabs Isaac’s shoulder and leads him behind the nurse.
“She doesn’t like you.” Roberts snickers as he follows Reyna.
“Wow, Sherlock, I had no idea.” Lucifer rolls his eyes as he too follows Reyna.
“Are you mad, Reyna?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very.”
“You’re lying.”
“Very well, I am mad.”
“At my dad?” Isaac tries his hardest to hold back a smile.
“No- no one in particular.” Reyna admits.
“Why?” Isaac looks up at Reyna, confusion etched on his face.
“It’s no one’s fault your father’s such an idiot.”
Isaac couldn’t help but snicker before laughing, the nurse to the left of Reyna stifled a snort and Roberts laughed aloud while Lucifer forced a smile and rolled his eyes.
“You know, I’m starting to think you’re quite the bad influence on my son.” Lucifer says sourly as he stows his hands in his pockets and walks in pace with Reyna.
“What you think and what I know to be true differ and, frankly, your opinion doesn’t matter to me.”
“I really wish we could do something about your smart mouth.” Lucifer says quietly as he smiles forcibly at Reyna.
“I really wish we could do something about your idiocy, alas we cannot.” Reyna replies with her usual lack of emotion. “You can wait out here.”
She points at Roberts.
“I don’t need you anymore, so get on with your things.” She points at the nurse. “You too.”
Reyna walks into the room with Isaac to oversee him getting his cast. Lucifer, bitterly, waits outside for them to get the cast on. Half an hour goes by when the two come out. Isaac looks downcast as Reyna looks bored and Lucifer asks the question on his mind.
“How long’s the cast gonna be on?”
“Two to three weeks.”
Isaac turns up to Lucifer.
“How will I write in class?”
Reyna looks down at Isaac.
“You’re left handed?”
“Mhm.” Isaac nods. “So is dad.”
Reyna raises her eyebrows in surprise.
“Huh. It seems you do have special qualities after all.” She says to Lucifer.
“You know, people try to be nice to you but you make it really hard for them to try.” Lucifer looks at Reyna.
“You know, when your life stops revolving around what people think of you and whatever else, you’ll find it much easier to live with who you are.”
“Can we go home now?”
“Yes, we can go home now.” Lucifer nods, deciding it’s best not to start an argument with Reyna.
He’d lose easily, he’s certain.
Delete Created with Sketch.
“So, how hard was it for Lucifer to bathe you?” Reyna asks quietly as she helps Isaac into bed and hour after having arrived from the trip to the ER.
“Very difficult- he had to stop a lot of times to make sure my cast didn’t get wet.”
“I’d do it, but I have a feeling that neither of us would feel comfortable.”
Isaac couldn’t help but smile as he yawned, looking up at the ceiling of his room drowsily. With a last check to make sure he’d be comfortable, Reyna bid him goodnight and was at the door when his voice stopped her.
“Reyna, you’re going to stay, right?”
She turns around slowly to look at him, leaning back against the door.
“Why do you ask that?”
“Not everyone can stand the job, you know? It comes with danger. Raquel is a perfect example of that.”
Reyna’s expression softens as she lets out a small sigh, tilting her head to the side and walking back to the side of Isaac’s bed.
“I know it comes with danger.” She gently brushes some copper locks out of his face with her fingertips. “And I may not be some super secret spy, detective nanny.”
Isaac couldn’t help but giggle a bit at the very words he’d thought to use to describe her. The corners of Reyna’s lips shift upwards.
“But I know what I’m doing. And if I tell you that you’re safe with me, it’s because I know I can guarantee your safety.”
He nods, the rhythmic way Reyna strokes the side of his face slowly lulling him to sleep. Eventually, Isaac falls asleep and Reyna quickly retracts her hand. She couldn’t stop the shaking and took a deep and shaky breath.
It’s too much- I know it is. Isaac. Lucas. They’re both too similar. Both are so easy to lose. I couldn’t save Lucas, I didn’t have the knowledge or strength or experience or courage to do so.
Reyna stops at the door again, her eyes roaming the dark room to fall back on Isaac’s sleeping form on his bed far too big for a six year old.
I have knowledge and strength, experience and courage now. He’s mafia, I can’t guarantee his safety either. He could easily die under my care.
She opens the door and steps out, closing the door in the dimly illuminated elegant hallway. Her eyes transfix on the door in front of Isaac’s room- Lucifer’s office. Without making a sound, she enters the office. Inside she finds Lucifer, sitting behind his oak desk as he rubs his temples in frustration or stress.
“Finally fell asleep?”
Reyna nods.
“Yes, fairly easy.”
“I’m surprised.” Lucifer sighs as he gets up, stretching a bit. “It takes him a long time to sleep- with a new caregiver, obviously.”
“It could be exhaustion.” Reyna lifts a shoulder. “I mean, the cast and everything that came with it could have exhausted him mentally which would reflect in his physical well being.”
“Well, perhaps.” Lucifer smiles a bit. “Or he really likes you.”
“It would be best if neither of us got attached to each other.”
“Look, I have no idea why you’re so…… reluctant to take the job, but Isaac likes you. Heck, I have never seen him as happy and- and just so- so alive with anyone as he has been with you.” He takes her shoulders gently and squeezes them. “Not even Claudia could bring that out in him. He’s so energetic and talkative and just being a normal little six year old boy. To me, nothing matters more than knowing my son is happy, safe, healthy, educated and that he feels comfortable in the presence of someone else that is not myself.”
“And I feel the same way, I want the same for Isaac.” Reyna admits as she sighs. “But I can’t, Lucifer.”
“Why can’t you?”
“You wouldn’t understand. It’s- it’s not something so easily comprehended. I mean, if I’m honest, I hardly comprehend it either.” Reyna says quietly. “It stems from- from something I can’t control.”
Lucifer takes in Reyna’s expression, wondering how she can go about not expressing anything. His hands drop from her shoulders.
“You know, my father says that the best way to control something uncontrollable is to control it with the help of those you trust.”
She turns her gaze up to Lucifer’s.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Sometimes, you gotta give in order to receive.” Lucifer says quietly before averting his gaze to the floor.
He sighs.
“Good night. And….. thank you. I know I’m not always the most attentive and that certainly is something I try to work on for the sake of Isaac, but I want you to know I’m grateful. Without you, frankly, I don’t think I ever would have noticed the Distal Humerus Physeal fracture.”
Reyna nods slowly before she looks at Lucifer who just opened the door to exit the room.
“You used the proper medical terminology of the fracture.”
“Well, I guess that just proves I’m not much of an i***t, doesn’t it?”
With a sly grin over his shoulder, he leaves Reyna in the office.
- Writer
